Statement on confirmation of Tom Price as Health and Human Services Secretary

Washington, DC, February 10, 2017—The National LGBTQ Task Force is making the following statement regarding the confirmation of U.S. Rep. Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“Tom Price is a terrible and dangerous choice for HHS Secretary. His record demonstrates a zeal for taking healthcare away from the people who rely on it most,” said Rea Carey, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force.

“The changes he has proposed to our nation’s healthcare system would be detrimental to LGBTQ people, communities of color, people with disabilities, children and young people, women, immigrants, and elderly folks. He supports repealing the ACA, which would leave 18 million people without health insurance in the first year alone. He plans to strip funding from Medicaid – which covers over 70 million low income people — and Medicare — which covers over 55 million elderly people.

Price has a long political record of anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice activism.

“Price voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, supported a constitutional amendment seeking to ban same-sex marriage, voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and co-sponsored anti-choice bills that would have granted personhood rights to zygotes — effectively banning all people from access to abortion and emergency contraception. Price is also out of step with the public when it comes to the goal of creating an AIDS free world: He has voted against syringe exchange programs even though his own district in Georgia is experiencing a local opioid epidemic and high rates of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. Pushing an ACA repeal will strip critical access to care away from people living with HIV and other marginalized communities and further jeopardize our country’s public health,” Carey stressed.